Pregnancy diaries || Postpartum Recovery and Breastfeeding

Postpartum Recovery

I spent four days recovering in hospital after the birth. We had a lot to learn about caring for our newborn as well as allowing me to heal and monitoring me after my significant blood loss. They also did a few tests on her due to her low birth weight. The hospital midwives were amazing and taught us all the things we needed to keep her happy and healthy.

Tearing

As I mentioned in my Labour and Delivery post. I suffered from second degree tears during the birth. Fortunately these were internal tears and so were not as easily disturbed as if they were on the outer parts. I did have some fear when it came using the toilet, so for the first three days after, I would only urinate while in the shower, using the shower head to dilute the urine and make it sting less. Fortunately the hospital also supplied me with plenty of "Ural" which is a drink additive powder that makes your water fizzy and neutralizes the acid in your urine making it less painful to pass.
Using "padsicles" (a.k.a Maternity pads which have been dampened and put in the freezer) also took away the inflammation from the area.

Sleep

Sleeping is something I still haven't quite figured out. The first night after birth I did not sleep a wink, instead opting to wait until Chris's return the next morning to relax and get a few hours shut-eye here and there. The overnight hospital midwives are well aware that new mums have difficulty relaxing enough to sleep so they offered to look after or soothe my newborn for an hour or so, allowing me to know she was well looked after and put my mind at ease for a wee while. It's a bit different when you leave hospital as you have the same concerns yet a fraction of the help and advice but we are figuring it out.

Uterus Contractions

After giving birth your tummy does not instantly shrink back to it's pre-pregnancy size, or even pre-pregnancy plus a few extra kilos. Most women find they still look 5-6months pregnant for a while after giving birth as their uterus is still enlarged. When breastfeeding or expressing I could feel my uterus contract a little bit each time. Sometimes they were barely noticeable, other times it hurt quite a bit. This continued for a few weeks following the birth at varying degrees becoming less noticeable as time went on. This is what causes a lot of the bleeding following birth, and it can persist for weeks until it has returned to normal. This also allows your body time to rearrange all of the organs that got shunted out of the way by your growing child.

2 days postpartum, having a baby AND a bump

Breast feeding

Breast feeding is another thing that I am still working on. Within the hour after birth, mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their new born babies. I did this through hand expressing. (TMI warning) However, I was at a disadvantage having "flat nipples" as opposed to "erect nipples" which are the ideal for breast feeding attachment. Our daughter would not recognise my nipples for what they are and so would not latch, as their was nothing to touch her upper palate and stimulate her suckling reflex. We continued to hand express my milk bit by bit for each feed in the days following the birth. Keeping in mind that a newborn baby's stomach is the size of a marble and colostrum (the early milk) is thick and nutritious. I had assistance from the hospital midwives who showed me exactly how to get the right technique and would collect together the little droplets produced into a 1ml syringe to give to my baby at her next feed. Over the following days my supply increased to a few milliliters and then again to a few dozen mls, which was when we introduced the breast pump. This increased my supply dramatically and allowed me to get plenty of food into my petite wee girl. I had a few consultations with a lactation consultant who advised that when my daughter gets bigger she will be able to take more of my nipple into her mouth and suck more effectively. We introduced a nipple shield, which is a piece of plastic that suctions onto your nipple, drawing it out into the protrusion, giving your baby something to latch onto. This was not always effective at first but we are starting to get the hang of it at 10 days old, so things are starting to look up. A number of the midwives were very impresses with my milk production. I have actually been producing way more than she can manage at one feed, so we started refrigerating the excess in the hospital and now that I am at home I have started freezing a few bags for later down the track. My intention is to exclusively breastfeed eventually, but whether it comes from a boob or a bottle, fed is always best (and that includes formula for those who choose it).